The Arctic is the least studied of all regions of the planet, but also that which has warmed fastest to-date and which is predicted to continue to do so along the 21 st century. While the Antarctic Treaty open for an era of scientific investigation and collaboration in Antarctica, the bases in the Arctic were not for science but for the US and the USSR to watch each other’s movement in the chess board of Cold War the Arctic was. Still international collaboration remains challenging in the Arctic. Meanwhile, rapid melting of ice in Greenland and the Arctic Ocean both have shown chatastrophic acceleration in 2012, qualifying the changes in the Arctic as “dangerous climate change” as per the UN Climate Convention. While there are some positives, such as ease of access to resources in the Arctic, triggering a Gold Rush, the forces that the rapid changes in the Arctic can unlock are phenomenal, and can propagate a wave of change to the rest of the planet. The changes in the Arctic should be of everyone’s concern. The challenge that dangerous climate change does not spread, unchecked across the planet.

Cost: Free, but RSVP essential.
To register a place visit http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/lectures/cduarte